Ch 15: Social Psych in Court Part 2: Apr. 25, 2014
The case of Jennifer Thompson’s assault Details of her case: How did eyewitness memory come into play? How did DNA testing come into play?
Memory Research on memory: 3 important stages 1) Acquisition Impact of stress on memory acquisition Social perception & the unexpected - Impact of weapons Impact of race - Own-race bias
2) Storage: Post-event info may be incorporated… Loaded questions & the misinformation effect: Loftus’ research: What is the misinformation effect? Car accident experiment – Wording experiment (‘hit’ vs. ‘smashed’)
3) Retrieval – Lineup format: (Gary Wells’ research): How to best construct lineups? Similarity of lineup to witness description – Sequential or simultaneous lineups? Instructions to eyewitnesses? What best predicts eyewitness accuracy?